‘Twelfth-century Renaissance’ is used to signify a period of multifaceted interdependent developments which drew on religious and ecclesiastical reform in tandem with intellectual and cultural renewal together with a re-thinking of conceptions of lay and spiritual governance. At the centre of these developments stood Rome in her many different guises. Rome was the seat of the papacy with its ambitious programme of ecclesiastical centralisation and reform of Christian society. Meanwhile, Rome was the historical centre of the Roman Empire: the imperium Romanum of the German emperors’ increasing ambition in refutation of Byzantine claims to the same. Apart from that, Rome embodied the classical wisdom which infused so much of twelfth-century scholarly endeavour. But Rome also symbolised the victory of Christianity over Judaism, marked by the Arch of Titus commemorating the removal of the Temple treasures to what would become the apex of western Christendom. At the same time Rome was a real city which was home to the oldest continuous Jewish community in the West; it was also the place where a commune with a voluble senate was established in opposition to papal temporal pretensions. This volume consists of six essays and a conclusion which investigate Rome from all these points of view as well as as a locus of intersecting cultures, beliefs and interests. Western Christian evidence from Rome itself is interpreted against the back-drop of liturgies followed by the pope; John of Salisbury's views on moderation as mediated through Cicero and Seneca are related to his appraisal of the Roman commune's senate. Anna Komnene's deprecation of papal Rome is seen in the light of Byzantine Roman ideals and the German Peutinger map which places Rome with its emperor at the centre of its worldview. Jewish views of Rome come to life through the travelogue of Benjamin of Tudela and reports of Jewish involvement in twelfth-century rituals welcoming new popes. Arabic and Persian writings concerning Rome are interpreted to give a voice to Muslim perceptions of the city and its images. This is an excellent collection which will enable students and specialists to savour the vitality of twelfth-century Rome in all its different manifestations within a wide contextual and geographic setting.